Ten years after a financial meltdown, America hasn’t grappled with the root problems.

Interest rates on the United States’ ten-year Treasury bond recently hit 3 percent, which should be regarded as historically low. Instead, a decade after the financial crisis began, it’s remarkable for being that high, and economic and financial experts can’t agree on whether this new rate portends a brewing economic miracle or a looming economic crisis. What it really reflects is a conundrum: the economy is doing well, but in large part because Americans have borrowed too much, too fast, and at too-low rates—and a real risk exists that normal interest rates will kill this debt-fueled boom. In the decade after the 2008 debt-based meltdown, the U.S. still hasn’t kicked its addiction to borrowing.

The federal government can’t seem to help itself. After overseeing the inflating and bursting of the dot-com bubble in the 1990s and the subprime mortgage bubble in the 2000s, the United States government is at it again – this time in the area of student loans.

Student loan debt now stands at a record $1.2 trillion, which represents the second largest category of consumer debt after home mortgages. It has grown by leaps and bounds since the financial crisis of 2008 and now surpasses even car loans and credit card debt.